FX.co ★ Silver Pulls Back from 7-Week High

Silver prices declined to $32.7 on Thursday, following a session in which they reached a seven-week high of $33.7. This drop mirrored a broader pullback in industrial metals and lagged behind gold amid growing debt concerns in the United States, which adversely affected commodities linked to manufacturing. U.S. lawmakers advanced proposals that would increase the budget deficit, prompting credit rating agencies to raise alarms about the sustainability of federal debt and driving long-dated yields to recent highs. These developments compounded existing worries about tariffs that threaten the robust growth of the photovoltaic sector, a significant consumer of silver in its manufacturing processes. Meanwhile, new reports indicate that China's wind and solar capacity surged to nearly 1,500 GW in the first quarter, marking a 60GW increase in photovoltaic power. Consequently, solar power output in Europe increased by 30% year-on-year in the same period.